Jeffrey R Avansino, MD, MBA

General Surgery, Reconstructive Pelvic Medicine, Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Aerodigestive Program, Hernia Program, Bowel Management Treatment Program

On staff since August 2008

Children's Title: Vice President, Medical Affairs, and Associate Surgeon-in-Chief

Academic Title: Professor, Surgery

Language (Other than English): Spanish

"I was first attracted to pediatric surgery during my 3rd year of medical school at the University of Nevada, while watching my mentor repair a tracheoesophageal fistula. I was captivated by the delicate nature of the surgery, the complexity of the congenital anomaly, and the opportunity to care for both the patient and the family. I am so lucky to have a job in which I have a positive and healing impact on peoples lives on a daily basis. I love talking with the families and patients and helping them understand and navigate the complexities of medical issues. That is definitely the most rewarding part of my job. Simlarly, my colleagues are amazing -- both within my division as well as throughout the hospital. Finally, I enjoy the opportunity to improve the quality and safety of care we deliver to our patients by contributing to our hospitals continuous performance improvement effort. I feel profoundly blessed to be a pediatric surgeon at Seattle Children's."

• Biography

  Jeffrey R. Avansino, MD, is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Washington and an attending pediatric surgeon in the Division of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Seattle Children's Hospital. Dr. Avansino earned his medical degree from the University of Nevada, School of Medicine in 1999 and completed his residency at the University of Washington in 2006. From 2002 to 2004, he served as a research fellow at the VA Medical Center in Seattle, studying intestinal stem cell transplantation. In 2008, he completed his fellowship training in pediatric surgery at Seattle Children's Hospital.

  Dr. Avansino is board certified by the American Board of Surgery in adult general surgery and pediatric surgery. He is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Pediatric Surgical Association.
  
  His clinical interests include anorectal malformations and Hirschsprungs disease, minimally invasive surgery and chest wall reconstruction. He helped develop a cutting edge multidisciplinary clinic at Seattle Children's called the Reconstructive Pelvic Medicine (RPM) clinic. The RPM clinic involves a comprehensive approach to patients with abnormalities of the pelvic floor and its organs (urinary, reproductive, and intestine) in a concentrated, team effort to improve their quality of life.
  
  Dr. Avansino's research interests center on continuous process improvement (CPI) and quality. CPI is a philosophy based on the Toyota production system used to improve processes by eliminating unnecessary steps in the care of our patients and applying these principals not only to academic and administrative processes but also to clinical work. Clinical Standard Work (CSW) combines the use of evidence-based medicine and consensus opinion to create a standard and reliable method of caring for our patients. The combination of CPI and CSW creates an environment for patients that heightens and enhances safety and efficiency.
  
  Locally, he is a medical staff officer and serves on the Medical Executive Committee, Quality Improvement Steering Committee, and the Credentialing Professionals Standards Committee.

  • Related Resources

• Patient Testimonials

  • Arielle Bellingham, WA 03.30.23

    Dr. Avansino was the surgeon for our daughter’s inguinal hernia repair. He was very thorough, talked to us in great detail about the procedure, what to expect, potential risks, etc. his entire team throughout the surgery (especially the attending anesthesiologist) treated our family and child with care and respect. Surgery went well, and within 48 hours our daughter was back to her usual self, riding bikes and playing with friends. We are very grateful for his care and the expert care of the children’s team. Thank you!

  • Jenice Everett, WA 08.23.21

    Dr. Avansino has been AMAZING with my child. We were first referred at our 5yr well child. That was 9 years ago, and we still see him for check ups, and if it happens there is no doctor I would trust more for surgery than Dr. Avansino!

  Recommend Jeffrey R Avansino, MD, MBA

• Awards and Honors

  Award Name	Award Description	Awarded By	Award Date
  SEATTLE TOP DOCTOR - 2022		Seattle Magazine	2022
  Seattle Top Doctor - 2019		Seattle Magazine	2019
  SEATTLE'S TOP DOCTOR - 2018		Seattle Magazine	2018
  Seattles Top Doctor 2016		Seattle Met Magazine	2016
  SEATTLE'S TOP DOCTOR - 2015		Seattle Met Magazine	2015
  SEATTLE MAGAZINE TOP DOCTOR - 2015		Seattle Magazine	2015
  Elected graduation speaker	Elected graduation speaker for Executive Leadership Program Graduation Ceremony	Seattle University	2015
  Seattle Magazine "Top Doctor"		Seattle Magazine	2014
  SEATTLE'S TOP DOCTOR - 2014		Seattle Metropolitan Magazine	2014
  Nominated, Family Choice Award		Seattle Children's Hospital	2014
  SEATTLE MAGAZINE TOP DOCTOR - 2014		Seattle Magazine	2014
  Seattle Metropolitan Magazine "Top Doctors"		Seattle Metropolitan Magazine	2014
  Seattle Metropolitan Magazine "Top Doctors"		Seattle Metropolitan Magazine	2013
  Seattle's Top Doc		Seattle Met Magazine	2013
  U.S. News Top Doctor		U.S. News and World Report	2012
  ACS, Washington Chapter			2005
  Resident Research Symposium: First Place			2004
  Seattle Surgical Society: First Place, Basic Science Competition			2003
  Association of Academic Surgery: Resident Award Session			2003
  Leonard Marmor Surgical Arthritis Scholarship			1998
  Ruth E. Saviers Memorial Scholarship			1998
  Alpha Omega Alpha, in Junior year		University of Nevada School of Medicine	1998
  Lange Book Award			1997
  McGraw Hill Book Award			1996

• Publications

  Manuscripts in Refereed Journals

  • George T. Drugas, MD, Kwon S, Ho JW, Drugas G, Avansino JR
    Presentation and management of candida-associated vasculitis with gastrointestinal involvement in a pediatric patient
    22659888 J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr, 2012 May 31

  Published Books, Videos, Software, etc.

  • Gilbreath P, Thapa M, Stephenson J, Avansino JR
    Thoracoscopic Repair of a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia
    Available from: www.mededportal.org/publication/8297, 2011
  • Gilbreath P, Thapa M, Stephenson J, Rudzinski E, Avansino JR
    Thoracoscopic Resection of Bronchogenic Cyst
    Available from: www.mededportal.org/publication/8298, 2011
  • Thapa M, Avansino JR
    Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis
    Located at: http://web.me.com/mthapa/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html

  Other Publications

  • Coe A, Avansino JR, Kapur RP
    Distal Rectal Skip-Segment Hirschsprung Disease and the Potential for False-Negative Diagnosis.
    26372258 Pediatric and developmental pathology : the official journal of the Society for Pediatric Pathology and the Paediatric Pathology Society, 2015 Sep 15
  • Merguerian PA, Grady R, Waldhausen J, Libby A, Murphy W, Melzer L, Avansino J
    Optimizing value utilizing Toyota Kata methodology in a multidisciplinary clinic.
    26169487 Journal of pediatric urology, 2015 Aug. : 11(4)228.e1-6
  • Avansino JR, Goldin AB, Risley R, Waldhausen JH, Sawin RS
    Standardization of operative equipment reduces cost.
    24074655 Journal of pediatric surgery, 2013 Sept. : 48(9)1843-9
  • Avansino JR, Peters LM, Stockfish SL, Walco GA
    A paradigm shift to balance safety and quality in pediatric pain management.
    23382441 Pediatrics, 2013 March : 131(3)e921-7
  • Bar-Joseph KL, Amies-Oelschlager AM, Avansino JR
    A painful protuberance: a young woman had primary amenorrhea and an inguinal hernia.
    22425407 American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 2012 Aug. : 207(2)144.e1-2
  • Thapa M, Gilbreath P, Avansino JR
    Creating a VOD cast
    Cool Technology for Academic Medicine, 2011 Apr 10
  • Bradley T, Stephenson J, Drugas G, Avansino JR
    Laparoscopic management of neonatal paraesophageal hernia with intrathoracic gastric volvulus.
    20713199 Journal of pediatric surgery, 2010 Aug. : E21-3
  • Waldhausen JH, Avansino JR, Libby A, Sawin RS
    Application of lean methods improves surgical clinic experience.
    20638518 Journal of pediatric surgery, 2010 July : 1420-5
  • Aarabi S, Drugas G, Avansino JR
    Mesothelial cyst presenting as an irreducible inguinal mass.
    20620295 Journal of pediatric surgery, 2010 June : e19-21
  • Avansino JR, Gow K, Migita D
    Transforming Doctors into Change Agents
    Leading the Lean Healthcare Journey, 2010
  • Agopian VG, Chen DC, Avansino JR, Stelzner M
    Intestinal stem cell organoid transplantation generates neomucosa in dogs.
    19165549 Journal of gastrointestinal surgery : official journal of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, 2009 May : 971-82
  • Avansino JR, Chen DC, Hoagland VD, Woolman JD, Stelzner M
    Orthotopic transplantation of intestinal mucosal organoids in rodents.
    16934605 Surgery, 2006 Sept. : 423-34
  • Chen DC, Agopian VG, Avansino JR, Lee JK, Farley SM, Stelzner M
    Optical tissue window: a novel model for optimizing engraftment of intestinal stem cell organoids.
    16697415 The Journal of surgical research, 2006 July : 52-60
  • Chen DC, Avansino JR, Agopian VG, Hoagland VD, Woolman JD, Pan S, Ratner BD, Stelzner M
    Comparison of polyester scaffolds for bioengineered intestinal mucosa.
    17409741 Cells, tissues, organs, 2006 : 154-65
  • Avansino JR, Stelzner M
    Palliative Treatment of Rectal Cancer
    Advanced Therapy in Gastroenterology and Liver Disease, 5th edition, 2004
  • Avansino JR, Bjerke S, Hendrickson M, Stelzner M, Sawin R
    Clinical features and treatment outcome of intussusception in premature neonates.
    14666476 Journal of pediatric surgery, 2003 Dec. : 1818-21
  • Jeffrey R. Avansino, MD, Karmy-Jones R, Avansino JR, EJ Stern
    CT of Blunt Tracheal Rupture
    Amer. J of Radiology, 2003 June : 180: 1670
  • Jeffrey R. Avansino, MD, Avansino JR, M Stelzner
    Gastrostomy
    Operative Techniques in General Surgery, 2001 Dec. : 3(4):251-262
  • Jeffrey R. Avansino, MD, Avansino JR, Dennis TR, Spallone P, Stock AD, and Levin ML
    Proximal 5p Trisomy Resulting from a Marker Chromosome Implicates Band 5p13 in 5p Trisomy Syndrome
    Am J Med Genet., 1999 Nov. : 87(1): 6-11
  • Avansino JR
    General Surgery Intussusception Non-operative orderset, Seattle Childrens Hospital
    Guidelines of Care
  • Avansino JR
    General Surgery Appendectomy, Uncomplicated orderset Seattle Childrens Hospital
    Guidelines of Care
  • Avansino JR
    General Surgery Pyloric Stenosis Guideline of Care and orderset (version 2)
    Guidelines of Care
  • Avansino JR
    General Surgery Appendectomy, Complicated orderset Seattle Childrens Hospital
    Guidelines of Care
  • Avansino JR
    General Surgery Gastroschisis, Guideline of Care, Seattle Childrens Hospital
    Guidelines of Care
  • Avansino JR
    General Surgery Ambulatory Surgery Pain Management
    Guidelines of Care
  • Avansino JR
    General Surgery NICU Comfort Protocol, Seattle Childrens Hospital
    Guidelines of Care
  • Avansino JR
    General Surgery Pyloric Stenosis Pre-operative orderset, Seattle Childrens Hospital
    Guidelines of Care
  • Avansino JR
    General Surgery Pyloric Stenosis Post-operative orderset, Seattle Childrens Hospital
    Guidelines of Care

• Presentations

  Presentation Title	Event	Location	Date
  Served as panelist for Management of newborn with ARM, ARM Radiology, ARM Problematic Cases and Reoperation, Hirschprung Disease Diagnosis, Medical and Surgical Treatment, and Pediatric Surgery Hands On Lab	Pediatric Colorectal, Motility and Pelvic Reconstruction Conference (Invited Faculty)	Columbus, Ohio	Nov 12, 2014 - Nov 14, 2014
  Optimizing Value Using Toyota Kata Methodology in a Multidisciplinary Clinic	American Academy of Pediatrics	San Diego, CA	Oct 13, 2014
  Pediatric Colorectal Learning Network (Invited	Pediatric Colorectal Course	Capetown, South Africa	Sep 10, 2014
  Starting a Bowel Program: Keys to Success and Pitfalls to Avoid (Invited)	Pediatric Colorectal Course	Capetown, South Africa	Sep 10, 2014
  Bowel Management for Constipation	Pull-Thru Network National Conference	Phoenix, Arizona	Jul 26, 2014
  Ask the Doctor, Boys ages 13-15	Pull-Thru Network National Conference	Phoenix, Arizona	Jul 25, 2014
  Starting a Bowel Program: Keys to Success and Pitfalls to Avoid (Invited)	Colorectal Course	Guangzhou, China	Nov 16, 2013
  Management of the Newborn with ARM (Invited)	Colorectal Course	Guangzhou, China	Nov 16, 2013
  Bowel Management Web Symposium (Panelist)	Program through Cincinnati and Akron Childrens Hospitals-International audience		May 8, 2013
  Starting a Bowel Program: Keys to Success and Pitfalls to Avoid (Invited)	American Pediatric Surgical Nurses Association	Marco Island, Fl	May 2, 2013
  "Two Case Presentations"	International Colorectal Webinar Conference (Invited)	Internet presentation to pediatric colorectal surgeons from around the world	Sep 21, 2012
  Physician Engagement: The Surgeons Perspective	Lean for OR Course	University of Tennessee (Invited)	May 18, 2012
  Standardization of Operative Equipment Reduces Cost	Pacific Coast Surgical Association	Napa Valley, CA	Feb 20, 2012
  Creating New Models of Care to Improve Efficiencies and Effectiveness- Seattle Children's (co-presented with Howard Jeffries and Russell Migita)	National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) - 2011 NACHRI Annual Leadership Conference	Bellevue, WA	Oct 11, 2011
  Creating New Models of Care to Improve Efficiencies and Effectiveness-Seattle Childrens	National Association of Childrens Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI)- 2011 NACHRI Annual Leadership Conference		Oct 11, 2011
  Hardwiring Clinical Standardization Across the Continuum of Care	Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit	Seattle, WA	Jun 8, 2011 - Jun 9, 2011
  Continuous Performance Improvement and Changing the Culture of Pain Management in Two Pediatric Hospitals	American Pain Society	Austin, TX	May 21, 2011
  A Lean Journey: Transforming Clinical Quality Utilizing Continuous Performance Improvement	Med Assets Healthcare Business Summit	Las Vegas, NV	Apr 27, 2011
  Quality Care for Gastroschisis	Pediatric Grand Rounds, Seattle Children's Hospital	Seattle, WA	Mar 31, 2011
  Quality Care of Gastroschisis	Grand Rounds, University of Washington, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology	Seattle, WA	Mar 9, 2011
  Ad-Hoc vs. Systematically Developed Order Sets: A Randomized Crossover Study of Patient Safety, Usability and Performance	Academic Surgical Congress	Huntington Beach, CA	Feb. 2011
  Implementation of a Standardized Procedural Checklist in a Children's Hospital	North Pacific Surgical Association	Tacoma, WA	Nov. 2010
  Engraftment of Mucosal Stem Cells into Murine Jejunum is Dependent on Optimal Dose of Cells	Resident Research Symposium	Seattle, WA	2003
  Engraftment of Mucosal Stem Cells into Murine Jejunum is Dependent on Optimal Dose of Cells	Tissue Engineering	Hilton Head, SC	2003
  Enhanced Engraftment of Intestinal Stem Cells into Murine Jejunum	Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons	Sydney, Australia	2003
  Intestinal Stem Cell Transplantation into Murine Jejunum	Seattle Surgical Society	Seattle, WA	2003
  Intestinal Transplantation	Grand Rounds, University of Washington Department of Gastroenterology	Seattle, Washington	2002
  Characterization and Management of Children with Paraesophageal Hernias after Antireflux Surgery	Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons	Bejing, China	1999

• Research Funding

  Grant Title	Grantor	Amount	Award Date
  Pediatric Colorectal Learning Network	Seattle Childrens Hospital	$100,000	2014 - 2018
  Effect of an evidence-based guideline of care for appendicitis on ED throughput and quality	Academic Enrichment Fund	$50,000 (2 years)	2010 - 2013